“This morning, SFMOMA unveiled new design details of the expanded building project. The expansion, as you likely know by now, is being designed by architectural firm Snøhetta in collaboration with SFMOMA, and this morning Craig Dykers, one of the principals of the firm, talkedSFMOMA staff through a presentation of the new designs. There will be new education spaces, lots of light, and ground-level galleries and orientation spaces that will be free to the public. Craig will be presenting and discussing details of the new design for the first time in public tomorrow evening, in YBCA’s Novellus theater. You’ll also be able to watch his presentation LIVEonline, HERE.

“The construction of the Bayview Branch Library is part of the Branch Library Improvement Program (BLIP), which is funded by a $106 million bond measure to upgrade or replace the city’s branch libraries. A separate fundraising campaign by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library will provide new furniture and equipment for the new library. The new Bayview library is being rebuilt as a world-class library with separate children, adult, & teen areas; a large program room; an interior courtyard; public art; study rooms and space to provide expanded library services to the community. Designed by THA Architecture and constructed by KCK Builders, this 9,000-square-foot building will provide a seismically safe, universally accessible and environmentally sustainable library facility.”

And here are the stars: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, United States Senator Barbara Boxer, and, at the podium, that Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director I remember meeting at Town Hall in SoMA a half-decade ago. (Didn’t know what this project was all about back then – anyway, she’s still totally gorgeous. Oh, turns out I still have her business card, she’s Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan and she went to UC Berkeley undergrad and UC Hastings Law School, like a kajillion lawyers in town.)

Also on hand was a host of more local pols, like Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, Mayor Gavin Newsom, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, Supervisor Chris Daly, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, SFMTA CEO Nat Ford (“Chairman of the Ford” he was called), the list went on and on.

And, that savvy AND very smart (a dangerous combination that’s rare in San Francisco politics) former Mayor Willie Brown knew just when to show up to make the maximum impact. His late-on-purpose Grand Entrance was made all the grander with the biggest hat I’ve seen him wearing. (Any smiles you see house right/stage left are not really happy smiles, they’re looks of disapproval. Oh well.)

Throw in buzzwords / phrases such as Grand Central Station of the West, world-class city, constancy, and you got yourself the Transbay Terminal groundbreaking in a nutshell.

Expect the “tallest tower in the West” and “San Francisco’s newest neighborhood” to come online by 2017 or later.